After trying nearly every wand in the shop, there was finally one that suited her.
"Ash and Phoenix feather-13 ¼ inches," Mr. Ollivander said.
Warmth spread through her fingers and a grin spread across her face. "This one," she breathed.
"Finally!" Timothy said, thumping her on the back in a friendly manner. She bit her lip but said nothing. He didn't seem to notice. "We are so getting ice cream now!"
She laughed. "Well, at least this time I know how cold it is. I mean, ice cream is great-don't get me wrong but when your best mate neglects to tell you you're not supposed to bite it…" She shivered. Tonks and Sirius laughed, and Timothy shrugged. Remus looked thoughtful.
"You should have known ice cream was cold!" Timothy said. "It is ice."
"Well-there are so many misnamed things-how am I supposed to know?" Alex defended herself.
"You seemed to like chocolate last time-without the cone? I remember…you didn't like the cone much," he said, frowning to remember.
Alex shrugged. "I don't remember…but it sounds right…"
Sirius grinned. "That's been Remus's favorite since I've known him. No hot fudge…or chocolate syrup…just a plain ice cream. Though he ate the cone I believe."
"Doesn't mean I particularly cared for it much," he admitted.
"So-when can I start doing things for Dumbledore?" Alex asked.
Tonks and Sirius exchanged glances. "Well you could start as an auror-like James and I did," he said. "And Tonks. Or as a member-like Remus. As an auror, you go through some tests. The problem is-training takes several years…"
"And I probably don't have that," Alex said indifferently.
"Alex!" Timothy scolded.
"What? You think he's just gonna say-whoops. She got away. Well, let's let her fight against me and I won't try to kill her. I'll just let her do whatever she wants to do. Be reasonable Tim."
He bit his lip and said nothing. Remus cleared his throat tentatively.
"Er-to start out as a member, you have to get both Mad-eye Moody's approval-"
"Which be sure you got it," Tonks cut in.
"And Dumbledore's approval," Remus finished. "I got Dumbledore's, but not Mad-eye's. I had to take lessons from him-not easy-and I practiced with James, Sirius, and Peter."
"What do you have to do to gain Dumbledore's approval?" Alex inquired.
"He has to be able to trust you," Sirius said. "But he trusts Snape and everyone knows he's a greasy-"
"Sirius…" Remus warned quietly.
"Yes MUM?" he asked in a childish voice.
Remus shook his head, holding back a smile. "The point is-Dumbledore knows what he is doing."
"Honestly, Remus-there's no way he'd trust me-for what I am."
"Alex-he trusts 2-previously 3-illegal animagi, a clumsy metamorphmagus that trips over her own two feet, 3-previously 4-major pranksters, 2 members of the Black family, a criminal of petty crimes, a werewolf, a half-giant…shall I go on?"
"Remus-you named us more than once," Sirius pointed out.
"Yeah-you're on there…well there's the animagus, the prankster, the Black…three times-"
"Though I could be the petty criminalist as well," Sirius pointed out.
"You're an animagus?" Alex asked, surprised.
Sirius grinned. "Yeah, I'm a-"
"No-don't tell me," Alex said, suddenly tense. "It's bad enough I know. You shouldn't have said anything. And don't tell me who the others are. Don't."
Timothy sighed. "Alex-you're not going to betray us."
"How do you know? No one can hold out forever. He could always get information from me-like when I knew about auror-fighting techniques. I didn't want to tell him I'd learned it from a book-"
"Well that wasn't important," Timothy said.
"Exactly," Remus said. "Like you knew about that spell, and you haven't told him. To protect-"
"Whatever," Alex said quickly. "Just don't give me too much information. It's better to be safe than sorry-right?"